The New Hampshire Gazette

The following was wrote by a Person on his Misfortune of not having the Advantage of making nice astronomical Observations, when he first discovered the COMET.

AH! there it flames, the long expected Star,
And darts it's awful glories from afar!
Punctual at length the traveller appears
From its long journey of nigh fourscore years.
Lo! the reputed messenger of fate,
Array'd in glorious, but tremendous state,
Moves on majestick o'er the heav'nly plain,
And shakes dire sparkles from its fiery train.
Ah! my misfortune, that I live retir'd,
And nought avail me arts I once acquir'd!
Here, like an hermit, in my lonely cell,
Far from the mansions where the muses dwell,
I'm forc'd to act the common gazers part,
Alas! unfurnish'd with the aids of art.
O for the tube, with philosophic eye,
To trace the shining wand'rer thro' the sky!
O for the ample arch, in nicer mode,
To mark it's stages in its azure road!
But vain the wish, oh! ye that can survey
The glorious orb, and track its wond'rous way,
And find its shortest distance from the source of day
While vulgar crowds with dull attention gaze,
And gaping wonder at the silver blaze;
Ye sons of science, from your high abodes.
Discry it's oblique path, and mark its nodes,
Explore with what velocity it's hurl'd,
And what exact it's period round the world.
Now, now in this delightful work engage,
Pursue the steps of the sagacious sage,
And be this wiser than the former age.

Sir Isaac Newton.